The net result of these various requirements for rules within the conceptualization, at least to those of us from the technical computer world, implies that rules will involve both descriptive as well as procedural elements. It further implies that some means to invoke the procedural elements must also be anticipated within the conceptualization.

The thrust of the conceptualization that we want to develop is aimed at explaining interactions: interactions among groups, interactions among individuals, interactions between individuals and groups, and interactions between individuals and other elements of their social ecosystem, including the physical ecosystem that is subsumed by the social ecosystem. To facilitate interactions, it will be necessary to bring the various participants of an interaction into the necessary physical or logical contact so as to facilitate the interaction. This bringing together is the function of a specific role within the ecosystem that is usually termed a broker. For the moment, consider a broker as an abstract concept. We’ll try to give it more substance in the next chapter.

The goal of the ontology is to fully specify the mechanics of transactions. Once the participants of a transaction are brought into proximity, the rules under which the transaction will occur must be established. This is the function of yet another abstract entity that is usually termed an arbiter. The service performed by an arbiter is an abstract concept as well. With regards to the establishment of the rules and consequences of transactions, we will term the functions provided by the policy arbiters as those of arbitration and adjudication.

Architectures of Computer Interaction

Interactions involving computers can be classified into two main forms: human-computer interactions and computer-computer interactions. As we noted in the second chapter, the main epochs of computer evolution over the last half-century or so can be characterized by a blending of the evolving physiology of computers with the manner in which a person and a computer interact. In a parallel development, the mechanics of computer-computer interaction have arrived at the dawn of fully networked systems; a prospect sometimes characterized as the grid. Functioning much like a collection of imprintable neurons within the mind, grid computing assumes an ability to imprint semantic functionality on arbitrary collections of networked computers.

The dominant form of interaction found on the Internet today is one of client-server computing. Through this model, both computer to computer and human to computer interactions can take place, to effect computational activities on behalf of a set process, or of a human user. Within the computer domain, as is often the case within purely human to human interactions, there is often a requirement for formally defined interactions. We have referred to these as transactions.

As we saw, a transaction is the atomic unit of interaction. It is of finite length and can be characterized as to beginning and ending. While a transaction may entail peer-to-peer exchanges, the establishment of the beginning and end of a transaction generally entails a client and server relationship between any two parties to the transaction. By that we mean that in order to proceed through any type of protocol to facilitate a transaction, it is necessary for the two parties to agree which is performing which steps of the protocol. We can define a generic model for such a transaction environment by establishing specific roles for two parties; the roles are that of supplicant and sentinel. The sentinel is the guardian of the integrity of the transaction while the supplicant is the party that desires to establish an interaction relationship with the sentinel in order to conduct the transaction.

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